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This year my New Year’s resolution was to become a better photographer. I had always really wanted to learn what my little Nikon D40x starter camera could do, but I wasn’t sure I could unlock it’s (and my) potential. So, at the beginning of the year I decided to embark on a photo a day project. I have a friend, and fabulous photographer I might add, Katrina Kennedy, that has a website called http://www.captureyour365, and for a few years I have been getting emails to try it out. It was always in the back of my mind, but I didn’t think capturing a year’s worth of the kind of photos I was taking was worth it. Well, lucky me, because at the start of this year, Katrina had a give away of all of the classes on her site during a live webinar. Well I won! I responded at exactly the right moment to the question she asked to pick a winner. Little did I know it would change my photography forever. And of course since Katrina and I are friends, she gave all the classes away to another lucky member too, I don’t think she wanted anyone to think it was a fixed contest 🙂 Anyhow, that was the day my photography changed forever. Not only did I dive into the photo-a-day thing, but I had access to all of her wonderful classes! I had taken some of her classes before, like her Captured Through The Lens, and the Holidays class, and I was getting a little better before this, but I was still not really getting the whole exposure triangle thing. So I thought ok, this “Exposure” class looks like exactly what I need. And that was the turning point. That class somehow unlocked all the missing links in my brain, and ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed all began to make sense to me. Katrina’s lessons are so easy to understand. You just download them and print them out, and follow the assignments. Then you post your photos to the gallery, and she will give you feed back, or post to the forum and she will help you with questions you may have. It is so simple, and I didn’t have to go anywhere for a class! Now I enjoy shooting literally everything. All subjects are fun to shoot because I look at it in a whole different way. I have been given techniques and tools that I never applied before because I never really understood the basic rules of the game. Now I am off and running. It is funny. Have you ever heard, “Oh I could do that if I had a nice camera.”, or “Oh I need that 50mm lens, and my photos would look like that too”. Prime example…I took this on my iPhone…

iPhone photo taken with a $15 clip-on “macro” lens.

Ok so I think I even thought that at one time. No, it’s nice to have those things, but that is not what takes a good photo. You are what takes a good photo! Light is what takes a good photo!
So now I am continuing on my new photography journey with the help of these invaluable classes. I am currently doing the “Practice” class, which is an ongoing, one lesson per month class, that really delves into a lot of things that do need to be practiced in order to improve our photography. I am eager to learn more.
You can see more of my photos from this new journey on my Flickr site:https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhuvane/
Also be sure to check out http://captureyour365.com
It has changed my photography forever!